Retrieval of data, which is stored in a large computer system or computer network system has been extremely facilitated by making use of search engines. A user seeking data or information related to a certain topic initiates a search query by entering a search term and obtains a list of links pointing to relevant documents corresponding to the search terms.
The search engine seeks for terms within the multiplicity of provided documents that match the search terms and provides a hyperlink to the user being indicative about the location of a relevant retrieved document.
However, the search terms might not be unambiguous and the information or data content of the documents found by the search engine may not fulfill the user request at all. Typically a rating whether retrieved documents match the query of the user has to be performed manually by the user. A user successively requests the provided documents with the help of the links provided by the search result. While browsing through a provided document the user judges whether the document matches the initial search query.
While browsing through a multiplicity of provided documents the user may find more or less relevant documents or distinct fragments of documents, that are of certain interest. Especially when the provided links of a search result point to different documents, which is common for documents provided in the world wide web, the user may lose overview over the distinct information content of the retrieved documents. Moreover, the user may have retrieved a very relevant fragment of information but does not remember in which of the retrieved or browsed documents this particular information fragment is located.
In order to provide contextual structuring of information as well as efficient data retrieval or data recovery, various techniques have been implemented in the prior art.
For example, the Microsoft Internet Explorer of Microsoft Corporation as well at Netscape Communicator of Netscape Communications Corporation, both provide an approach for an easy discovery of pages or documents that have been accessed during browsing in form of a list of favorites or bookmarks. For example a user, surfing the internet by making use of the above described products, can mark a relevant page or a relevant document and can add a location indication as well as a description of the relevant document or page to the list of bookmarks or favorites. In order to recover such a relevant document the user selects a corresponding item of the list of favorites or bookmarks. By selecting such a list item, the browser provides the corresponding document or the corresponding page to the user.
The bookmarks or favorites can be stored in different folders indicating different categories. In this way the bookmarks or favorites are structured in an hierarchical way inhibiting an effective or easy restructuring of the list of bookmarks or favorites.
The Hyperwave IS/6 product of Hyperwave AG (cf. http://www.hyperwave.com) provides a knowledge management platform incorporating various functions of document management, content management as well as information retrieval and enterprise information portals. The Hyperwave structured web document management system provides both an infrastructure and numerous navigational tools based upon it: hierarchical structuring, hyperlinking and dynamic link maps, meta data attributes, content and attribute search as well as 3D information landscapes. Hyperwave especially allows to manage hyperlinked documents with a separate link database. In this way hyperlink relationships between documents can be obtained without having to retrieve the documents themselves. This allows navigable, graphical link maps of both incoming and outgoing links to be generated on demand. In this case hyperlinks not only refer to standard (referential) links but also to annotations, inlines and textures.
These various types of links can be used to filter the result of a search for link objects or to reduce the clutter in a graphical link map. The Hyperwave document management system is mainly suited for a company specific intranet rather than suited for a private user surfing the internet. The various products and solutions supported by Hyperwave are all based on a Hyperwave specific platform Hyperwave IS/6. The implementation of such a document management system is rather complex and causes appreciable costs.
There exists a variety of different solutions for contextual structuring of distributed data or distributed information focusing on bookmark management. For example the URL Manager Pro (cf. http://www.url-manager.com) is a bookmark manager for the Macintosh computer. This product provides an access to bookmarks in any application through a system-wide menu. Bookmarks stored in URL Manager Pro bookmark files can be stored and manipulated in an intuitive way.
The Powermarks, a bookmarking tool with search facility, commercially distributed by Kaylon Technologies Incorporated provides a variety of features such as storing, synchronizing and backing up of bookmarks on the internet, rating of bookmarks, a user defined bookmark field for application specific information, a fetch command to automatically retrieve name, description and keywords of page given a URL, a customizable bookmark viewer, a keyword browser for easy viewing of keywords as well as a synchronization feature with browser bookmarks. In contrast to web browsers such as the Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator, Powermarks does not store bookmarks in folders, instead they are stored in a flat, non- hierarchical list.
As a replacement for folders, Powermarks uses keywords and an instantaneous search facility. To access groups of bookmarks, common keywords can be added to related bookmarks. For example a search for a distinct bookmark can be based on a keyword which is assigned to the distinct bookmark. Such a keyword search locates bookmarks by matching the keywords typed in the search field with words in the keyword field of the bookmark. The list in which the bookmarks are stored can be rearranged according to a user's preference.
Performing a right mouse click anywhere on the column headings of the list displays a menu for selecting which bookmark properties to display. The column headings can be re-ordered by holding down the Ctrl key of the keyboard and using the left mouse button to drag and drop the column headings. By left clicking on a column heading the list is sorted according to this column.
Contextual structuring by making use of bookmark or favorite techniques only provides a retrieval and structuring of documents or pages that are categorized by a unique address (such as an URL) or a distinct path of a computer file system. Furthermore, a distinct fragment of a document can be bookmarked and recovered later on only when the fragment is assigned to a hyperlink.
The definition and placement of hyperlinks within a document is solely defined and implemented by the author of the document. The reader instead has no possibility to define and to set different bookmarks according to his or her preferences.
The present invention therefore aims to provide an improved method for structuring and retrieving of data provided by a multiplicity of electronic documents.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for providing an improved method for structuring and retrieving of data provided by a multiplicity of electronic documents. The present invention addresses such a need.